PayPal

StatCounter

Monday, April 25, 2011

Abrahamic Religions

One should not make the mistake that the people who today call themselves Jews are related in any genetic way to the people in the Bible. They are all converts. The Israeli professor, Dr. Shlomo Sand, makes this clear in his book The Invention of the Jewish People. Professor Sand waited to get tenure before releasing his book so he could not be fired! Yet there is more freedom of speech and thought in Israel than here.

Spanish (Sephardic) Jews are descended from Berber tribes in Morocco that converted to Judaism before the Moors conquered Iberia. Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of the Khazars who had a kingdom on the Steppes. They converted to Judaism years before they were conquered by the Mongols. The Ashkenazi fled to Russia and Poland.

In eastern Europe some Ashkenazi would become vicious tax and rent collectors as well as enforcers for czars and princes. The serfs' condition in eastern Europe was as bad as any slave anywhere at any time. Jews formed a layer between the super élite and the truly wretched. Jews lived in ghettos, where they were exploited by their own leaders. Some successful Jews, such as Rothschild, moved west, to Germany, France, Italy, Britain and America. They would be followed by many, some of whom, like Rothschild, would become exceedingly wealthy in Europe, Britain and America.

All of the present-day Jewish groups (Judaism is a religion, not a race) are descended from Yochanan ben Zakkai whose Pharisaic sect made a pact with Vespasian, the Roman general who crushed the Jewish Great Revolt and dispersed the Jews several decades after Christ.

Ben Zakkai's Pharisaic sect was the only Jewish sect to survive the Great Revolt. The Romans destroyed ben Zakkai's rivals. The principal book of modern Judaism (the last 2,000 years since ben Zakkai) is the Talmud, not the Torah. Some scholars say that the Talmud refutes the Torah and Moses and God. They say that the Talmud has its roots in ancient Babylonian and Egyptian mystery cults and that modern Judaism is a multi-layered secret society: Torah on the outside and Talmud on the inside where God is not worshipped by the inner circle. Freemasonry, with its occult "oriental" symbols, they say, is an affiliated secret society with power inside the Vatican at the highest levels.

Consider the possibility that the bondage from which Moses delivered the Hebrews in Egypt was devil worship, not building pyramids. (The pyramids were built by Egyptians a thousand years before Joseph came to Egypt.) After Moses marched his people around the desert for forty years trying to teach them a lesson which the materially-minded never grasped, Moses died and the "chosen people" invaded Canaan where they set up a kingdom of their own after they had slaughtered the inhabitants (who were their cousins). "The Conquest" is the Pharisaics favourite part of the Bible because God supposedly delivered dominion over the world to them.

From that point it was the king and his court (who considered themselves the "chosen people") on one side and God and his prophets on the other side. Read the Bible. Tanaka (the Miqra) is an acronym for the Torah (the five books of Moses), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings), TaNaKh. There is no Talmud.

After many warnings, the deed to the "promised land" was eventually revoked when God sent the dreaded Assyrians to conquer the "chosen people" and drag them away in chains. When they failed to learn, the lesson was repeated when the Babylonians dragged them off in chains a second time. Some time after the Persians had defeated Babylon, those who wanted to return to "the promised land" did. Others did not return.

When Jesus came he was not the Messiah the Pharisees were expecting or wanted. They wanted Alexander the Great. Some had believed that Alexander was the Messiah when he conquered the Persian Empire. The Messiah they wanted would conquer the world and put them in charge. The Pharisees persuaded Pilot, their Roman overlord, to crucify Jesus for them, fulfilling the prophecy foretold in the Bible. Jesus taught love, not power, overcomes evil. This is "hard teaching" indeed: It defies common sense.

Nevertheless, after Christ, most of the people who lived in Palestine converted to Christianity. About six hundred years later, they converted to Islam. Few present-day Jews, if any, have any connection to the Jews in the Bible. (The Palestinians are the most likely descendants of the Jews in the Bible.)

The Israelis are invaders. None of their actual ancestors ever lived in Palestine. More importantly, the Israelis' religion is not based upon the Tanaka (the Hebrew Bible) which was the religion of the people of Moses. Their principal religious book is the Talmud. Many Jews still oppose the Zionist "State of Israel" — calling the Israelis heretics — even after sixty years of intense pressure to support the "Jewish State".

ALL Jewish groups opposed the invasion of Palestine a century ago when Zionism was founded. The Nazis destroyed Zionism's opponents. Despite rampant anti-Semitism, and perhaps because of it, some Pharisaics did extraordinarily well in the 20th century and today they are among the wealthiest and the most powerful people on earth.

Haredi Jews, like Rabbi Weiss and Neturei Karta, put the Torah first, despite being part of the Ashkenazi Rabbinate which puts the Talmud first. They are as different from the Israelis as night and day. They behave like Christians because they are kind and forgiving. They have compassion. They oppose injustice and war. They support truth and peace. They stick their necks out for what they believe. They turn the other cheek. The Haredi follow Moses. Jesus followed Moses. Karaite Jews, a sect founded in the 8th century, were a significant part of Judaism until recently. They reject the Talmud and Rabbinate Judaism altogether, staying true to the Torah and the Tanaka.

What about the other Abrahamic religions?

To their shame, most Christians have not been very good Christians. How can they reconcile Christianity with what they have done and are doing now? Gandhi observed that Christianity is wonderful, we should have some. Historically, Muslims have been pretty good Christians. Compare what Isabel and Ferdinand did at the western end of the Mediterranean in the 15th century to what Suleiman the Magnificentdid at the eastern end of the Mediterranean at the time. Christians should study history. The record does not flatter us. Does Jesus approve of 2,000 years drenched in blood spilled in His name?

"We were only defending ourselves." Jesus did not defend himself.

There is conflict between Muslims and Christians in the former Ottoman Empire. Yet, the Orthodox Catholic Church has its headquarters in Istanbul (Constantinople) where it has always been for 2,000 years. The Orthodox Catholic Church was established by Jesus and his Apostles, they remind us. The Orthodox Catholic Church's greatest enemy for over a thousand years has been the Roman Catholic Church, not Islam. The Roman Catholic Church has its own enemies who eat away at its insides. Some of them are responsible for the sexual abuse scandals.

For hundreds of years, Jews enjoyed safety in Islamic lands when Jews were persecuted by Christians in Europe. Some Jews had position and power.

Have Muslims done no evil? Undoubtedly, they have, but they are unjustly targeted by Christians and Jews. Is belief in God the problem? If religion is problematic, is atheism an alternative? Secularism is the religion of the Godless. What do they worship? Shopping? Who do they worship? The last five Commandments are universal — so is kindness and mercy. Without them, life is Hell on earth (which is where we are headed). Those who turn their back on God and love Satan and his works are in control.

Currently, ask yourself how did anyone in Afghanistan ever hear about "The Reverend" Terry Jones who burned the Qur'an in Florida? Jones is a complete zero. He has no following at all. They heard about him through the media which publicized what he did. Who owns the media? How did anyone ever hear about the cartoons in a Danish magazine that mocked Muhammad? They heard about them through the media. Who owns the media? Why wasn't anything said about comedian Mel Brooks who mocked the Passion of the Christ? They do not know about Mel Brooks because the media didn't make it an issue. But everyone has heard that Mel Gibson, who made The Passion of the Christ, is a drunkard and an anti-Semite. Who owns the media? Who owns Hollywood? Who owns the world? Pharisaics own quite a lot of it. They are materially-minded.